Atlantic City, NJ Hotel Fire, Feb 1916

Atlantic City, N. J., Feb. 4. -- Five persons are known to have been killed by a fire that broke out in the Overbrook Hotel (formerly Dunlop Hotel), destroyed that building and several others, and caused damage, estimated at $600,000 early today. Eleven guests, of the hotel were unaccounted for four hours after the fire was discovered, and it was feared they had been killed.
Thirty persons were injured, many of them seriously.
That the death list was not much larger was due to the work of MISS KATHARINE STOKES, 22 years old, operator for the Bell Telephone Co., who saw the fire from her office, across the street from the Overbrook Hotel. At that time practically the entire first floor was in flames.
MISS STOKES flashed the alarm to every fire station in the city, and apparatus was quickly on the scene, but the firemen had to confine their efforts to saving lives and preventing a spread of the flames. They saw that it would be impossible to save the hotel.
The firemen were handicapped by a severe gale and were unable to prevent the flames from spreading. Within a few moments twenty frame houses in the vicinity of the hotel, which was an old landmark at Mount Vernon and Pacific avenues, had caught fire and two were quickly destroyed.
The Episcopal Church of the Ascension, worshipping place of the fashionable guests who came here during the summer, stood next to the Overbrook. For a time it was hoped that the church could be saved, but it finally caught fire from the intense heat from the burning hotel and was also destroyed.
Firemen suffered intensely from the cold as they fought the fire. Many were covered with ice and had to be replaced by other men.
For some time it was feared that the entire city would be destroyed, and all the inhabitants were notified to be on watch for sparks carried by the gale. Despite the precautions taken, houses three blocks away from the hotel were set on fire.
The hotel, which in past years has been known as the Abbey and the Dunlop, stood in the heart of the cottage and hotel colony. Proprietors and occupants of the neighboring buildings, most of them half clad, kept busy stamping out sparks for more than four hours, or until the conflagration was under control.
The fire originated in the kitchen of the Overbrook about 4 o'clock, but was not seen by MISS STOKES until half an hour later. In the meantime the engineer of the hotel had discovered the flames and attempted to put them out unaided. His clothing caught fire and he was burned to death.
RICHARD MOTT, manager of the hotel, was seriously injured. He later notified the police that his aged parents were missing.
PAUL HENDRICKS, a guest at the Overbrook, did heroic work in rescuing others.
Most of those hurt were hurt in jumping from the windows of the hotel. Those listed by the police as most seriously hurt were:
JOHN McCOY, West Hoboken, N. J.
MR. and MRS. ALEXANDER ANDREWS, West Philadelphia.
GEORGE BANKER, a Philadelphia architect.